Lincolnshire County Council (03C09384)
Adult care services Maladministration causing injustice
28 June 2004
A Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) complained on behalf of ‘Mr Underwood’ (not his real name for legal reasons), whose father was in residential care from June 2001 until his death in October 2002. He complained about the Council’s valuation of a property which he and his father owned jointly, the way the Council sought to charge for his father’s care, and the delay in responding to reasonable enquiries about the matter.
When the issue of funding for his father’s care arose, Mr Underwood indicated to the Council that he neither wished to purchase his father’s share of the property nor sell his own share. However, the CAB asked the Council to arrange and pay for a valuation of the property. Meanwhile the CAB itself obtained a valuation which expressed the view that the value of the father’s share was very low indeed. For just over a year the Council took no effective action upon the matter until deciding that a barrister’s opinion should be sought. However, that option was not pursued.
The Ombudsman found that there were very long delays in responding to enquiries both from the CAB and the Ombudsman. Those delays were in themselves maladministration. The Council also failed to come to terms with the substantive issue, and therefore made little progress in the two years since the CAB first raised the matter with the Council.
The maladministration by the Council caused a long period of anxiety and uncertainty for Mr Underwood and the cost of his father’s residential care was still not resolved.
In accordance with the Ombudsman's recommendations for a remedy for the injustice, the Council:
- determined the question of the property’s valuation within one month (deciding it to be zero); and
- paid Mr Underwood £1,000 to compensate him for his anxiety and uncertainty during the period of the Council’s delay.
Remedy achieved: 24 January 2005
Date Updated: 06/11/09